Last Day in Phuket – Jungceylon, Bangla Road and Patong Beach

Time sure flies when you’re having fun! It was already H & I’s last day in Phuket. Since our flight was only at night, we planned to make the most of our time on the island. On we hopped onto our bike again!

First order of the day was brunch! We returned to Thanon Ratuthit Songroipi Roadto get some lunch at Jungceylon Shopping Center. It was much quieter during the day.

Since it was our last day, we were running low on funds. We decided to get a cheap meal at the mall’s underground food court. Purchase a reload card at the cashier and simply swipe it at the food stalls. The balance will be refunded at the end of your meal.

The place was nice and clean, with a big selection of food to choose from.

I was curious as to what Deep Fried Godzilla was, but I didn’t get to try it. 😦

Chicken and fries for 90B. The chicken had a teriyaki flavour, but was a tad too sweet.

Shared a fried oyster omelette with H. It had a mushy, gooey texture – quite different from the Malaysian Chinese version – but was loaded with ingredients. Almost every mouthful had oysters in it! It did get overwhelming halfway through as the item is quite greasy. 100B.

My last Thai Milk Tea in Thailand. 😥

After brunch, we decided to walk through Bangla Road again. The place was a shadow of itself in daytime, devoid of dancing girls, street walkers, loud techno music and flashy lights. The clubs were replaced by souvenir and clothing stalls.

A few bars were open but you can tell that there was no life to the party..

Just a short distance away was Patong Beach – one of Phuket’s most famous (and most commercialised) beaches. If you’re looking for calm and tranquility, this is not the place for you. The beach was crowded with tourists from all over the world and water sports enthusiasts. Although relatively clean, it lacked the pristine clear blue waters we saw at Phi Phi Islands.

Beach was occupied with umbrellas and mats. There were many white tourists. Let’s just say I don’t envy how they burn in the sun. Some were really sunburnt but were still lying there to tan like there was no tomorrow.

Patong Beach was one of the worst hit areas in Thailand during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, but has bounced back with tourists flocking to the place. Looking at the line of hotels, hostels, restaurants and bars lining the beach, it’s hard to imagine that this was all almost flattened by natural disaster and has seen many lives lost, once.

After chillin’ on the beach for a bit, we made our way back through Bangla Road to where the bike was parked.

Stopped by for some fresh fruits from an Indian peddler.

Wanted to get these as souvenirs, but was really running low on money by then..

Said goodbye to Thailand’s unique tuk-tuks.

We got back to the hotel and waited for our taxi to pick us up and drive us to the airport. The sun was setting as we drove past the winding, hilly beach roads, casting a beautiful orange light across the island.

Goodbye, Phuket. It has been amazing.

PS: H & I thought we had set aside just enough for our taxi trip, but it turns out we mistook some other currency for Thai baht ! O-O Good thing we had just enough money to pay the taxi guy, or we’d be in trouble… but that meant that we had no money to eat dinner (there were no money exchange booths in the airport wut??) until we got back to Kuala Lumpur. We were left with just 70B, and the cheapest food there (instant noodles) cost 80B.